Innovative Financing Consultant

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

24 February :59-GMT+01:00 Central European Time (Berlin)

WFP celebrates and embraces diversity. It is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all its employees and encourages qualified candidates to apply irrespective of race, colour, national origin, ethnic or social background, genetic information, gender, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, religion or belief, HIV status or disability.

ABOUT WFP

The World Food Programme is the world's largest humanitarian organization saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity, for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.

At WFP, people are at the heart of everything we do and the vision of the future WFP workforce is one of diverse, committed, skilled, and high performing teams, selected on merit, operating in a healthy and inclusive work environment, living WFP's values (Integrity, Collaboration, Commitment, Humanity, and Inclusion) and working with partners to save and change the lives of those WFP serves.

To learn more about WFP, visit our website:  and follow us on social media to keep up with our latest news: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok.

WHY JOIN WFP? 

• WFP is a 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.

• WFP offers a highly inclusive, diverse, and multicultural working environment.

• WFP invests in the personal & professional development of its employees through a range of training, accreditation, coaching, mentorship, and other programs as well as through internal mobility opportunities.

• A career path in WFP provides an exciting opportunity to work across the various country, regional and global offices around the world, and with passionate colleagues who work tirelessly to ensure that effective humanitarian assistance reaches millions of people across the globe.

• We offer an attractive compensation package (please refer to the Terms and Conditions section of this vacancy announcement).

JOB TITLE: Innovative Financing Consultant

TYPE OF CONTRACT: Consultancy

UNIT/DIVISION: Innovation Accelerator (INNA)

DUTY STATION (City, Country): Munich, Germany

DURATION: 6 months

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

The World Food Programme (WFP) is the United Nations' frontline agency fighting hunger. WFP reaches more than 100 million people every day - delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with smallholder farmers, communities, and governments to improve nutrition and build resilience.

The WFP Innovation Accelerator was named by Fast Company as the Most Innovative Non-Profit Organization 2021 for its work in identifying, nurturing, and scaling disruptive start-ups and innovations to end global hunger. Based in Munich, Germany, the Innovation Accelerator provides WFP employees, entrepreneurs, and start-ups with funding, hands-on support, and access to WFP's global operations. Through the Innovation Accelerator, WFP is leveraging unprecedented advances in digital innovation - such as mobile technology, artificial intelligence and blockchain - and new business models to transform the way it serves vulnerable communities across the world. In 2022, Accelerator supported innovations that positively impacted the lives of 37 million people globally. Most recently, the Accelerator runs programmes for external partners such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and others.

More information here: and

ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES:

The incumbent will report to the Head of Innovative Finance, Venture Launchpad, and Frontier Innovations, and is expected to:

Foster the development and implementation of the Accelerator's innovative financing models, with a particular focus on helping to build the Accelerator's and WFP's impact investing mechanisms to fund impact at scale:

Contribute to the development and implementation of new impact investing mechanisms to attract additional funding towards investable and scalable innovations creating social impact at scale.

Support the development, implementation and management of processes and tools for the impact investing mechanisms, including impact measurement and management, reporting and monitoring of investments facilitated by WFP.

Develop a robust pipeline of investable and scalable innovations in the Accelerator and beyond, covering all aspects of deal origination from market research to investment proposal.

Conduct landscape mapping to further inform WFP impact investing activities and support relationship building with external funding partners to help with fundraising efforts for the WFP funding mechanisms as well as direct capital raising by WFP and the innovations.

Support innovations and other WFP Innovation Accelerator teams with investment readiness activities to accelerate their path to scale advancing towards Zero Hunger and other Sustainable Development Goals:

Provide investment readiness support and lead continuous refinement of a toolkit to be used across the Accelerator.

Provide innovations with capital raising advice to secure most suitable funding either through WFP impact investing mechanisms or external donors and investor partners.

Share impact investing knowledge and best practices with the Accelerator and other WFP teams to promote and showcase the value of investment readiness activities.

Support other innovative financing initiatives and the overall WFP Innovation Accelerator:

Design, test, prototype, validate and implement innovative financing models suitable to the WFP innovation projects and external startups addressing the impact, humanitarian and development topics.

Engage with all necessary internal stakeholders on topics related to innovative financing models and support the building of strong external partnerships within the Innovative Financing ecosystem globally.

Provide analysis and content preparation for presentations and management meetings on innovative financing and other priority topics.

Support other core processes of the WFP Innovation Accelerator (e.g. innovation sourcing; innovation bootcamps; sprints programme; scale-up enablement; innovation services; communications and knowledge management) as required.

Support the Head of the Innovation Accelerator and the Director of Innovation and Knowledge Management with any other activities as required.

DELIVERABLES AT THE END OF THE CONTRACT:

• Robust processes and tools for co-developed innovative financing and impact investment models.
• A pipeline of investable and scalable innovations, leading to investment proposal development and establishment of an initial portfolio of WFP-facilitated investments.
• Investment readiness and capital raising advice provided to a range of innovations and Accelerator teams.
• Ensure that all work and materials developed during the contract are well documented and available to the WFP Innovation Accelerator team.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:

Education: Bachelor's degree in finance, Business Administration or equivalent. Master's degree is a plus.

Experience:      At least 3 years of progressively responsible international experience in the impact investing space, preferably with a demonstrable interest in the humanitarian or international development sector.

Knowledge & Skills:

• Ability to conduct detailed research on innovative businesses, understand their business models and impact potential, and create financial and non-financial forecasts.
• Understanding of the impact investing sector, ability to identify key trends, conduct market scoping exercises and identify potential external investor partners.
• Understanding of investment processes and ability to advise innovations and Accelerator teams on key aspects of investment readiness and capital raising activities.
• Strong conceptual thinking and analytical skills to develop new innovative financing strategies and models.
• Passion for innovations disrupting hunger, preferably with working knowledge of investing in food system transformation, climate change adaptation and socio-economic resilience (incl. agtech, foodtech, market access platforms etc.).
• Experience working cross-functionally and getting things done in an agile and hands-on way.
• Excellent communication/presentation skills, with the ability to write strategy documents, develop business plans, pitch investment proposals, and write and deliver presentations.
• Collaborative spirit, able to partner with a wide range of people at all levels and across different cultures and to act with credibility and diplomacy.
• Self-motivated and able to work with a high degree of autonomy.
• Sets a high level of ambition for our own and the innovative finance team's work to achieve impact for the vulnerable people we serve.
• Fully committed and motivated to achieve the aims of the UN World Food Programme.

Languages:       Fluency in oral and written English is mandatory. Intermediate knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish) or Portuguese (one of WFP's working languages) is considered advantageous.

WFP LEADERSHIP FRAMEWORK

 

WFP Leadership Framework guides to the common standards of behavior that guide HOW we work together to accomplish our mission.

Click here to access WFP Leadership Framework

REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION

 

WFP is committed to supporting individuals with disabilities by providing reasonable accommodations throughout the recruitment process. If you require a reasonable accommodation, please contact: 

NO FEE DISCLAIMER

 

The United Nations does not charge any application, processing, training, interviewing, testing or other fee in connection with the application or recruitment process. Should you receive a solicitation for the payment of a fee, please disregard it. Furthermore, please note that emblems, logos, names and addresses are easily copied and reproduced. Therefore, you are advised to apply particular care when submitting personal information on the web.

REMINDERS BEFORE YOU SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION

• All applications must be submitted exclusively through our online recruitment system. We do not accept CVs or spontaneous applications by email.

• If you experience challenges while submitting your online application, please contact us at for technical support only.

• Please note that applications sent to this email address cannot be considered.

• We strongly recommend that your profile is accurate, complete, and includes your employment records, academic qualifications, language skills and UN Grade (if applicable).

• Once your profile is completed, please apply, and submit your application.

• Kindly note the only documents you will need to submit at this time are your CV and Cover Letter

• Additional documents such as passport, recommendation letters, academic certificates, etc. may potentially be requested at a future time

• Only shortlisted candidates will be notified

All employment decisions are made on the basis of organizational needs, job requirements, merit, and individual qualifications. WFP is committed to providing an inclusive work environment free of sexual exploitation and abuse, all forms of discrimination, any kind of harassment, sexual harassment, and abuse of authority. Therefore, all selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

No appointment under any kind of contract will be offered to members of the UN Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), International Civil Service Commission (ICSC), FAO Finance Committee, WFP External Auditor, WFP Audit Committee, Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) and other similar bodies within the United Nations system with oversight responsibilities over WFP, both during their service and within three years of ceasing that service.

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